Rand McNally Celebrates 90 Years of the "Great American Road
Trip"

2014 edition of America's #1 Road Atlas will be
90th

SKOKIE, IL--April 15, 2013: Today, Rand McNally's 90th edition of
America's #1 Road Atlas - the publication that has been commonly found in
cars since the days of the Model T -- has been declared
road-ready. From family vacations and roads trips with friends, to weekend
getaways and unexpected adventures, Rand
McNally has helped generations of explorers create long lasting
memories - from every page of the atlas.

And to celebrate the 90th anniversary, Rand McNally today also officially launched an
ebook version of the atlas as well as an iOS application for iPad.

The first Road Atlas

The inaugural edition of the atlas, published in 1924, was referred to
as the "Rand McNally Auto Chum." The nation was embracing car travel as
nearly two million Ford Model T's hit the road with gas costing $.21 per gallon.1 Featuring the 48
states that existed, hand drawn, and covering only roads made of concrete,
the atlas did not contain many of the features considered common for
today's printed, online, and mobile maps.

In 1924, the Road Atlas:

Did not identify roads by number; instead roads were listed by their
names, such as Roosevelt Highway. In fact, the atlas depicted zero miles of
interstate, as those roads did not yet exist.

Today's atlas contains more than 47,000 miles of interstate included in
160,000 miles of highways.

Did not include an index for cities, or other places. If a driver
didn't know where a town was located, he or she would have to page through
the atlas to find it.

The current Road Atlas features eight pages of detailed index with tens
of thousands of points of interest (including all 59 U.S. National Parks in
addition to place names).

Did not appear in full color. The 1924 atlas was printed in only two
colors, dark blue and red. The first full-color edition was printed in
1960.

Today's maps use color to indicate road classification, terrain, and
city size among other descriptive details.

The 90th Anniversary Edition

Ninety years later, the 2014 Edition of the Rand McNally Road Atlas
provides:

Valuable coupons in the inside cover for lodging, camping and auto club
membership

Best of the Road 2012 towns and road trips --
editor-curated journeys that celebrate the uniqueness of small towns in
America

Multiple sizes and formats including versions with large scale maps,
standard sizes, and a new easy-to-read midsize

Incredible detail and updates of roads, city inserts, places, and index
information

In celebration of the 90th anniversary, Rand McNally is hosting a retrospective of Road
Atlas covers through the years at Rand McNally 90 years . Road
travelers are invited to visit the page and "like" their favorite covers
-- from the hand-illustrated scenics of the 1930s to the
graphical mid-century modern covers of the 1960s.